Integrated accounting à la française: The perspective of the Système Croisé

This paper examines the way in which cost accounting is decoupled from the financial accounting model that is circumscribed by the framework of the French plan comptable(i.e. comptabilité générale). Some attendant problems are investigated, and the conflicting views of leading commentators on French accounting are brought to bear. In particular, the tension between managerial accounting requirements of enterprise accounting, on the one hand, and the macroeconomic orientation of comptabilité générale, on the other, are analysed. Finally, the paper offers a concise appraisal of the Système Croisé, an integrated accounting model that was designed to resolve problems arising from the gulf between cost accounting and financial accounting in France.     

Development of Accounting Regulatory Framework in China: An Empirical Evaluation

In China, the government has long been involved in directly regulating accounting work. The rule-based accounting regulations have been formulated for different industry and business ownership structure by the central government since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. Remarkable changes have, however, taken place in Chinese accounting which have resulted from the wide-ranged economic and accounting reforms in the last two decades. Recently, an accounting regulatory framework based on accounting standards has been introduced, with great efforts to develop a set of practical accounting standards. A survey study was conducted to empirically investigate the prevailing perceptions of the users and providers of business accounting in respect of four major conceptual and practical issues underlying the construction of the accounting regulatory framework in the changing business environment in China. The study results demonstrate that the respondents from various interest groups possessed mixed views. They generally endorsed the current progress in the accounting reforms. On the other hand, the majority of the respondents were supportive of further changes in reshaping accounting regulatory framework to accommodate the growth of market-oriented economy in China.     

Continental European accounting model and accounting modernization in Germany

Classification techniques based on one or few dimensions are widely used in research studies and textbooks to explain and predict the development of accounting systems internationally. However, their usefulness in international accounting has been limited in today's globalized world. For example, in the context of the EU, IFRS are required for consolidated accounting, while national accounting systems continue to be the dominant system for unconsolidated accounting in many countries. Using Germany as a case study, the objective of this paper is to examine whether Germany can still be classified within the Continental European model of accounting following the Act to Modernize Accounting Law (Bilanzrechts-modernisierungsgesetz — BilMoG), which was promulgated on May 29, 2009. This Act introduced some major reforms to the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch — HGB), such as removing the close connection to tax rules and introducing new recognition and valuation regulations, which changed traditional principles of orderly accounting (Grundsätze ordnungsmäßiger Buchführung). As a result, the current German approach of financial reporting separates Germany from the traditional Continental European model of accounting and moves it somewhere on a spectrum between the traditional Continental European model of accounting and the Anglo-American model of accounting.     

Testing the limits of structuration theory in accounting research

In 1985 I published a paper in Accounting Organizations and Society with Bob Scapens titled Accounting Systems and Systems of Accountability; understanding accounting practices in their organisational contexts. The paper suggested the potential usefulness of Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory for efforts to understand accounting in its organisational contexts. Rather than engage in a further review of the use of structuration theory in accounting, this paper sets out to test our original proposition as to the usefulness of Giddens ideas for accounting research. I explore three points of possible criticism in the paper. That structuration theory does not take the ‘agency’ of accounting sufficiently seriously; that Foucault and Lacan allow us to get much closer to the ways in which accounting information works back upon human subjects; and that Giddens and accounting share a lack of ethics.     

Objectivity in accounting

This paper defends the possibility of objectivity in accounting. The views presented are shaped by the antirepresentationalist philosophy of Donald Davidson, and in particular by the conviction that objectivity can and must be founded upon intersubjectivity. A critique of Shapiro’s [Shapiro, B. (1997). Objectivity, relativism and truth in external financial reporting: What’s really at stake in the disputes. Accounting Organizations and Society, 22(2), 165–185; Shapiro, B. (1998). Toward a normative model of rational argumentation for critical accounting discussion. Accounting Organizations and Society, 23(7), 641–664] essentially representationalist analysis of the presuppositions of financial reporting, and an exploration of the metaphor of accounting as a language, are used to elucidate the antirepresentationalist view of accounting advanced in the paper. The elucidation continues through a reconsideration of the question of presuppositions of accounting, and the issue of the politicization of accounting: it is concluded that accounting has no philosophical presuppositions, and that the difference between desirably objective and politically distorted accounts essentially lies in the practices carried out in the name of each.     

The process of measurement in managerial accounting: A psycho-technical systems perspective

This paper develops a formal framework of the act or process of measurement in managerial accounting. Although the traditional paradigm of measurement underlying accounting treats it as a technology designed to represent properties of events and transactions in numerical terms, this paper is based on the notion that managerial accounting measurement is intended to facilitate behavior, and thus requires an alternative view of measurement as a “psycho-technical system”. The paper presents the psycho-technical framework and examines its application in selected areas of managerial accounting: human resource accounting, social accounting, divisional performance evaluation, zero-based budgeting, standard costing, and evaluation of internal control systems.     

Why is research on management accounting change not explicitly evolutionary? Taking the next step in the conceptualisation of management accounting change

In this article we discuss the evolutionary foundation of the OIE-guided management accounting change research building on the framework of [Scapens R.W. 1994. Never mind the gap: towards an institutional perspective on management accounting practice. Management Accounting Research, 5, 301–321.] and [Burns, J. and Scapens, R.W., 2000. Conceptualizing management accounting change: an institutional framework. Management Accounting Research, 11, 3–25.]. We argue that research on management accounting change should be based on evolutionary theory, but that the full potential of evolutionary theory has not yet been described or used in management accounting research. The conceptualisation and understanding of management accounting change can be improved and expanded if the evolutionary approach is developed beyond the general belief that it describes only small and gradual, often slow, changes. In this article we show that an evolutionary perspective on management accounting change implies that management accounting’s development is explained as the interaction between the evolutionary sub processes of retention (inheritance), variation and selection. Thus, both continuity and change are seen as evolutionary outcomes. These processes follow the cumulative causality that Charles Darwin proposed and Thorstein Veblen applied to the social sciences. Such a comprehensive theory, here labelled Universal Darwinism, must, however, be given substance with supporting details.     

Doxic sunglasses: A response to “Green accounting and Green Eyeshades: Twenty years later”

This article, in responding to Thornton's (this issue) depiction of how accounting might be extended to incorporate environmental issues, offers a critique of mainstream understandings of the accounting function. Specifically, we argue that Thornton's arguments are developed within doxic, or taken-for-granted, parameters regarding what accounting is and what it can be. Expanding the accounting domain whilst staying within these parameters leads to something more than the mere reproduction of the status quo; it leads to intensified commodification of the biosphere.     

Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research

Over the past three decades, a desire to understand the processes of change within accounting, and the contribution made by accounting to broader societal and organizational change, has stimulated a substantial body of historical research in accounting. Labelled as the “new accounting history”, this diverse collection of methodological approaches addressing a wide range of problems has made possible the posing of new questions about accounting’s past. The understanding of what counts as accounting has broadened, a greater awareness of how accounting is intertwined in the social has emerged, voices from below have been allowed to speak, while accounting has been seen to be implicated in wider arenas, with networks of practices, principles and people constituting varieties of “accounting constellations”. The paper reviews the central contribution of Accounting, Organizations and Society to the emergence of the new accounting history, and suggests some directions in which this may develop in the future.     

The measurement of meaning in accounting: A critical analysis of the principal evidence

The process of communication between preparers and users of accounting information involves, in part, the sharing of meaning between those parties. Using the framework of Osgood et al. (The Measurement of Meaning, University of Illinois Press, 1957), Haried [The Semantic Dimensions of Financial Reports, Journal of Accounting Research (1972) pp. 367–391, and Measurement of Meaning in Financial Reports, Journal of Accounting Research (1973) pp. 117–145] provided a first attempt at the ‘measurement of meaning’ in accounting. Haried found that the structure within which meaning in accounting was held was different to the standard structure proposed by Osgood et al. (1957). Based on the results of measurements of meaning within this structure, Haried (1973) concluded that such measurements were not particularly relevant to accounting research. The present paper presents a critical re-analysis of Haried's (1973) own data. The results are inconsistent with Haried's and show that (1) the structure within which accounting meaning is held is, largely, consistent with the seminal work of Osgood et al. (1957); and, (2) the measured meaning of accounting concepts within that structure is consistent with expectations.     

Heterogeneous student perceptions of accounting course importance and their implications for SET reporting and use

This research tests for an association between student perceptions of accounting course importance (PCI) and student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings of satisfaction with instructor performance, course quality, and grading procedures. The study also investigates whether instructor rankings constructed from SET ratings vary across student groupings based on PCI. Using responses from students enrolled in introductory accounting classes at three AACSB-accredited accounting programs we find that SET ratings vary significantly with PCI. We also find that instructor rankings constructed from SET ratings vary with PCI. These findings suggest that, when heterogeneous perceptions are present, satisfying all students enrolled in a course may not be possible and that reliance on aggregated SET data may obscure important differences in student opinion. In this circumstance, disaggregating SET data by PCI and emphasizing the feedback of students holding higher (stronger) perceptions of course importance may enhance SET diagnostic value.     

Aggregate accounting research and development expenditures and the prediction of real gross domestic product

The role of accounting information for public policy making has received increased attention in recent years. Konchitchki and Patatoukas, 2014a, Konchitchki and Patatoukas, 2014b demonstrate that growth in aggregate accounting earnings can predict future growth in nominal and real Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We extend the micro to macro literature by decomposing earnings into the R&D and pre-R&D components. Using the Almon (1965) finite distributed lag model, we find that both components can predict future real GDP growth with different lead-lag structures. Importantly, this decomposition significantly increases the explanatory power of the predictive model using accounting information. Aggregate accounting R&D can predict real GDP through the personal consumption, business investment, and net export channels of GDP. Our study extends prior research on the forecasting usefulness of accounting information at the aggregate level and has practical implications for macro forecasting and for public policy making regarding innovative activities of publicly listed firms.     

Accounting education literature review (1991–1997), part II: students,educational technology,assessment and faculty issues

This paper updates literature reviews by Rebele et al. (1991)and Rebele and Tiller (1986)by reviewing a subset of the accounting education literature published during the period 1991–1997. In a preceding paper (Part I), Rebele et al. (1998)reviewed accounting education articles related to two topics: curriculum and instructional approaches. In this paper (Part II), we review articles related to the topics of students, educational technology, assessment and faculty issues, published primarily in the following five journals: Journal of Accounting Education, Issues in Accounting Education, The Accounting Educators' Journal, Accounting Education: A Journal of Theory, Practice and Research and Accounting Perspectives. Recommendations for future research are offered at the end of each major section. An appendix identifies instructional cases and educational resources published in accounting education journals during the 1991–1997 period.     

The decision relevance and timeliness of accounting earnings in Saudi Arabia

This study examines the decision relevance and timeliness of accounting earnings in Saudi Arabia during the 1995-1999 sample period. The empirical results suggest that the publication of accounting earnings does not cause significant revision to the market assessment of future cash flows of Saudi firms. On the other hand, it appears that the publication of accounting earnings leads individual investors to revise their security holdings. However, this evidence is limited to cases where firms reported profit. The empirical results further suggest that earnings are timely in terms of their association with security returns and that increasing the measurement interval significantly improves this association. The tests also show that positive and negative earnings have differential implications for the timeliness of accounting earnings. Further tests show that this evidence is not consistent with the loss liquidation argument [J. Account. Econ. 20 (1995) 125] and, potentially, may reflect the lack of tax incentives to liquidate investments in loss firms. Finally, the results show that Saudi managers do not incorporate economic losses into accounting earnings on a timely basis which may reflect reduced market demand for accounting information, low levels of public debt, low expected litigation costs, and weak monitoring by analysts and other stakeholders.     

Accounting education literature review (1991–1997), part I: Curriculum and instructional approaches

This paper updates the work of Rebele, Stout, and Hassell (A review of empirical research in accounting education: 1985–1991. Journal of Accounting Education, I, 167–231, 1991) and Rebele and Tiller (Empirical research in accounting education: A review and evaluation. In A. C. Bishop, E. K. St. Pierre and R. L. Benke (Eds), Research in Accounting Education, 1–54. Harrisonburg, VA: Center for Research in Accounting Education, James Madison University, 1996) by reviewing a subset of the accounting education literature published during the period 1991–1997. Specifically, we review articles (both empirical and nonempirical) related to the accounting curriculum and instructional approaches in accounting that were published in the following journals: Journal of Accounting Education, Issues in Accounting Education, The Accounting Educators' Journal, and Accounting Education: A Journal of Theory, Practice and Research. A second paper, Part II, will review articles published in these same journals during the period 1991–1997 on the topics of assessment, use of technology, students, faculty concerns, cases, and instructional resources.     

Measuring the impact of accounting journals using Google Scholar and the g-index

The UK's proposed Research Excellence Framework promotes a move towards citation analysis for assessing research performance. However, for business disciplines, journal rankings are likely to remain an important aid in evaluating research quality. The accounting literature includes many journal rankings and citation studies, however there has been little coverage of recent advances in these areas. This study explores approaches to assessing the impact of accounting journals with a focus on quantitative measures as a complement to peer-review-based evaluation. New data sources and techniques for citation studies are reviewed, and the g-index is selected for further analysis. The g-index was developed by Professor Leo Egghe in 2006 as an improvement on the h-index. Like the h-index, the g-index represents a relationship between papers published and the level of citations they receive, but the g-index is more sensitive to highly cited paper. To apply the g-index to accounting journals, the study first combines eight published journals rankings to produce a list of 34 highly-regarded titles. Citation data are then gathered from Google Scholar and used to calculate g-index scores as the basis of a new ranking. Google Scholar is found to have broader coverage of accounting citations than Scopus or the Web of Science databases, but requires cleaning to remove duplicate entries. The use of the g-index for ranking journals is found to be a useful innovation in citation analysis, allowing a more robust assessment of the impact of journals.     

Management Accounting Research: 20 years on

This Editorial Report charts the progress of Management Accounting Research in its second decade. Starting by noting that in 2009 there were almost a quarter of a million downloads of papers from Management Accounting Research, it describes the range and diversity of the papers published in the Journal, their topics, research settings, and the theories and research methods used. It emphasises that the editors strongly encourage the use of a broad range of theories and research methods, and they want such diversity to continue to be a defining feature of the papers published in Management Accounting Research in the future. Finally, they urge management accounting researchers to undertake innovative research and to be both original and creative, thereby avoiding the homogeneity and narrowness which seem to be an increasing feature of accounting research more generally. In this way Management Accounting Research will continue to be the major source of leading edge research in the field of management accounting.     

Differences between domestic accounting standards and IAS: Measurement,determinants and implications

This study analyzes determinants and effects of differences between Domestic Accounting Standards (DAS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS). We use an extensive list of differences between DAS and IAS to create two indices, absence and divergence. Absence measures the extent to which the rules regarding certain accounting issues are missing in DAS but are covered in IAS. Divergence applies in circumstances where the rules regarding the same accounting issue differ in DAS and IAS. It measures the extent of differences between DAS-based rules and IAS-based rules.